Accused mom ordered to face trial on murder charge

A Shelby Township woman told at least two police officers she was not responsible for the death of her 2-year-old son, who died after he was strapped in car seat and left unattended for several hours.

But despite her denials, Audrionna Rhoades, 21, was ordered Tuesday to face trial for second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of her son, James Nelson, last September.

“Ultimately, Audrionna Rhoades is James Nelson’s parent,” said William Cataldo, a Macomb County assistant prosecutor. “… She is responsible for him.”

During a preliminary examination for Rhoades on Tuesday, two Shelby Township police officers, James Osterland and Jason Schmittler, the lead detective on the case, testified Rhoades emphatically denied she put James in a van about 8:30 a.m. Sept. 3 and left him when she went to work.

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“She steadfastly denied” she placed the boy in the vehicle, Osterland said.

Rhoades later repeated the denial to Schmittler when he questioned her as part of his investigation of James’ death.

Rhoades also described her son as “quite the escape artist” who was capable of putting himself into and getting out of the car seat by himself.

But, Schmittler added under cross-examination from defense attorney Randy Rodnick, Rhoades later conceded the boy could not have been responsible for his own death.

“She later agreed someone would have had to put him in that seat,” the detective said.

The preliminary examination failed to offer any concrete evidence of who did put James in the vehicle, which resulted in him dying several hours later when his body temperatures climbed as high as 108 degrees, according to testimony from Macomb County Medical Examiner Daniel Spitz.

Jennifer Walden, who lived in Rhoades’ mobile home with the defendant, James and her own son, similarly denied she placed the boy inside the vehicle.

Walden discovered the boy about 6 p.m. when she looked outside and saw something unusual in the van.

“When I opened the door, I saw James in the car seat,” Walden said.

The lack of clear-cut evidence of how James wound up inside the van prompted Rodnick to argue his client face trial on a lesser manslaughter charge.

“It’s clear that whatever did happen was an accident,” Rodnick argued. “… No way is there enough evidence to show second-degree murder.”

Judge Douglas Shepherd of 41A District Court acknowledged the case is “circumstantial,” but he ruled the prosecution produced enough evidence to warrant Rhoades be bound over to Macomb County Circuit Court to face trial on the more serious murder charge.

“I can’t rely on speculation or necessarily the credibility of the defendant’s statement,” Shepherd said.